Low energy plasma focus (0.1kJ) and applications

Recently the interest in dense plasma focus has greatly increased because of the possibility of developing the device into an intense pulsed radiation source of x-rays and neutrons for test purposes.Experimental studies performed with many Plasma-Focus (PF) facilities have shown that simultaneously with the emission of X-ray pulses, there also appears the emission of pulsed ion streams of a relatively high energy. Such ions are emitted mainly along the z-axis of the PF discharge, although the ion angular distribution is relatively wide. The device was used to evaluate the effect of exposure on some biochemical and hematological parameters in male albino rats. The hematological studies indicate that exposed group to plasma radiations induced significant reduction in the red blood cell count (RBC), and also hemoglobin concentration, while reticulocytic count was elevated in the three groups, platelets count was increased only on the second exposed group. Serum levels of thyroid hormones and thyroxine (T3 , T4 ) were estimated at the end of the experiment.